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en-usEngadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronicsCopyright 2018 AOL Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.https://massively.joystiq.com/2015/02/02/neverwinter-details-the-oathbound-paladin/https://massively.joystiq.com/2015/02/02/neverwinter-details-the-oathbound-paladin/https://massively.joystiq.com/2015/02/02/neverwinter-details-the-oathbound-paladin/#comments

Paladins are sort of a thing in any setting you claim to name. The very name conjures images of a fiercely devout warrior with heavy armor, heavy weaponry, and boundless dedication to a cause. Neverwinter's next class, the Oathbound Paladin, is certainly meant to play off of that image. It's a class that can specialize in tanking or healing based on the Paragon path it chooses, and it mechanically centers around helping allies without thought for itself.

The central mechanic of the Oathbound Paladin is Divine Call, an ability that gathers energy passively and through certain Paladin actions. When used, it can taunt foes or offer big area healing. The more regular abilities for the class allow it to aura-buff the party, place damage shields on fellow party members, and absorb damage only to unleash it upon enemies shortly thereafter. Find out more about the class with the official preview.

It was five years ago February 2nd that Star Trek Online came mewing into the MMO world, bringing with it final frontiers, infinite diversity, and canon-approved lockboxes. Cryptic's so excited to share this milestone that it's starting the celebrations a little early with a daily giveaway from today through Thursday, beginning with a free research and development pack.

The real special treat is more than just casual freebies, however. The team's introducing a brand-new featured episode, Dust to Dust, starring Garrett Wang as Harry Kim. Q is also returning with his annual events, although this time around he's adding an Omega Particle minigame to the mix.

Completing both the featured episode and Q events will earn tokens to spend on various rewards (including a Kobali Samsar Cruiser) and fragments that can be assembled for an Omega upgrade kits.

This module will be a significant one when it comes early this year. Elemental Evil will add a new class to the game, the Paladin, and increase the level cap from 60 to 70. The increased level cap means more skills and quests for all eight classes.

Cryptic also announced that future updates in 2015 for Neverwinter will include the player guild housing Strongholds system, the Xbox One launch, and the arrival of popular D&D characters.

Who is Captain Geko? It was a fairly innocent question posed on Reddit earlier in the week by a user who happened to group with someone using that name in Star Trek Online. The answer is that it's the usual screen name of lead designer Al Rivera, who took the opportunity to respond to the question with a larger discussion of what makes the game what it is and how the game's microtransaction model is set up.

Rivera discusses his experience with the franchise and being a longtime fan from the age of 10, as well as the fact that the game's microtransactions are decided upon chiefly based on what will keep the lights on and keep the game fundamentally free-to-play. While he states clearly that not every decision comes down to him, at the end of the day he's proud of what the team has accomplished and the state of the game. If you want a look behind the curtain at one of the people in charge of Star Trek Online, take the time to read Rivera's full answer.

Are you yearning to play Neverwinter on your Xbox One? You may be able to next month, as Perfect World is dangling closed beta registration for a February testing phase. More specifically, the game will be on Microsoft's newest console from February 5th through February 8th.

A Perfect World press release claims that "Neverwinter on Xbox One will utilize console features including friends list integration and optimized controls to easily transition the MMORPG experience from PC to console."

Once it exits beta, Neverwinter will be free-to-play if you have an Xbox Live Gold subscription.

Star Trek Online's first producer's letter of the new year hailed 2014 as a fantastic year and suggested that 2015 may be even better. After recounting many of the additions to the game over the past 12 months and summing up the story arc thus far, Stephen D'Angelo stated that the past year was just setting the stage for what's to come! The continuation of this arc includes some challenges that even the grand alliance may not be able to handle. The next step in the story, along with the first of the new captain and bridge officer specializations, will release with the anniversary update in that's just over three weeks away.

Just what kind of events and celebrations can players expect for this fifth anniversary? D'Angelo didn't share, but he did say that the details on that -- as well as the future content -- will be forthcoming piece by piece in dev blogs starting in the next few days.

Your loyal Star Trek Online crew deserves some recognition for its tireless work at raking you in XP, don't you think? Well, even if you don't agree, Cryptic is planning to give some major love to bridge officers in an upcoming patch.

The team posted a dev diary today outlining the revamp to players' faithful companions: "From a high-level standpoint, the updated bridge officer training system is focused on allowing players to invest in their bridge officers by training them in any of their class and specialization abilities, which can then be easily swapped in and out on the fly."

These changes will allow for a more flexible and customizable crew that can cross-train in intelligence and other potential specializations. The dev diary goes on to detail how officers will be trained going forward and what benefits players will get from these buffed-up buddies.

Chi submitted a proposal on December 31st of last year to buy up all remaining shares of the studio. He already owns some of the company's stocks, although it is unclear what percentage he has. The company has put together a committee to evaluate the proposal.

Klingons have long been the second-class citizens of Star Trek Online, although as of recent expansions they've come into their own in both content and culture. Reader Sean sends us in his wicked-looking avatar to be our final One Shots of 2014. See you all on the flip side!

"Behold, my alter-ego, Shia'Tor of House Breknar, who is busy making plans aboard the IKS Heart of Praxis," he wrote. "There are plenty of Federation carebears to troll -- I mean, hunt."

Want to be featured in a future edition of One Shots? Send your favorite MMO screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of the scene. Large, colorful, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. Look ma, we brought back One Shots!
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bring-back-one-shotscrypticcryptic-studiosculturef2pfree-to-playgalleriesgallerymiscellaneousone shotsone-shotsperfect-worldperfect-world-entertainmentpics-or-it-didnt-happenpwereader-screenshotsreader-submissionssci-fiscreenshotscreenshotsstar trek onlinestar-trekstar-trek-mmostar-trek-onlinestouser-submissionsWed, 31 Dec 2014 10:00:00 -0500319|21114526https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/30/one-shots-brain-boy/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/30/one-shots-brain-boy/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/30/one-shots-brain-boy/#comments

Boy howdy, I do love seeing the wonderfully bizarre superheroes that players can whip up in MMOs. Here's another winner from reader Dynatos, who shows off a rather... unique hero from Champions Online.

"Born with an oversized (and over-active!) brain, Alistair Chester Grayson VI was never content with his 'weak' flesh -- so he put his brain to work augmenting his body with cyborg components he created!" Dynatos revealed. "Here he is hovering over the Renaissance Center."

Want to be featured in a future edition of One Shots? Send your favorite MMO screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of the scene. Large, colorful, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. Look ma, we brought back One Shots!
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bring-back-one-shotschampionschampions onlinechampions-onlinechampscocrypticcryptic-studiosculturef2pfree-to-playgalleriesgallerymiscellaneousone shotsone-shotsperfect-worldperfect-world-entertainmentpics-or-it-didnt-happenpwereader-screenshotsreader-submissionsscreenshotscreenshotssuperherosuperheroesuser-submissionsTue, 30 Dec 2014 10:00:00 -0500319|21114521https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/22/one-shots-cruising-for-borg/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/22/one-shots-cruising-for-borg/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/22/one-shots-cruising-for-borg/#comments

We're kicking off our two-week series of daily One Shots with this picture of a pair of Star Trek Online starships getting ready for some serious action.

Reader Chris sets the scene: "Futures passing in the night. A Galaxy-X dreadnought from the TNG finale All Good Things dangles in space with a heavily Borg-modified Galaxy-class ship in the background. Borgified Galaxy cruisers always remind me of the chilling moment at the end of the episode Parallels where Riker exclaims, 'You don't know what it's like in our universe. The Federation's gone! The Borg is everywhere! We're one of the last ships left...'"

Want to be featured in a future edition of One Shots? Send your favorite MMO screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of the scene. Large, colorful, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. Look ma, we brought back One Shots!
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bring-back-one-shotscrypticcryptic-studiosculturef2pfree-to-playgalleriesgallerymiscellaneousone shotsone-shotsperfect-worldperfect-world-entertainmentpics-or-it-didnt-happenpwereader-screenshotsreader-submissionssci-fiscreenshotscreenshotsstar trek onlinestar-trekstar-trek-mmostar-trek-onlinestouser-submissionsMon, 22 Dec 2014 10:00:00 -0500319|21005207https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/30/captains-log-why-star-trek-online-is-kind-of-a-mess-right-now/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/30/captains-log-why-star-trek-online-is-kind-of-a-mess-right-now/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/30/captains-log-why-star-trek-online-is-kind-of-a-mess-right-now/#comments

I haven't had nearly as much time to play Star Trek Online lately as I would have liked; I've had other projects to work on, other games to play, and a lot of holiday stuff going on. So my main captain, who's been trekkin' around since launch, is still woefully underleveled. I accept entirely that this is my own fault, but I haven't been stressing out over it; I have no need to rush up to the cap.

That attitude is helped substantially by the fact that the people who are rushing up to the cap or already did rush up are awash with complaints. The speed of leveling. The speed of upgrade mechanics. How the Tier 5 and Tier 6 ships interact. The price of items. The amount of mission content. Gaining new specialization points at the cap. Sure, some of it is pretty normal complaining, but there's a general sense of discontent with the game at the moment. And I'm honestly not surprised because this problem was always going to crop up, and it could have been managed so much better.
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balancecaptain's logcaptains-logcrypticcryptic-studiosdelta-risingexpansionexpansionsf2pfeaturedfree-to-playissueslevellevel-caplevelsopinionpatchpatchesperfect-worldperfect-world-entertainmentpwesci-fistar trek onlinestar-trekstar-trek-mmostar-trek-onlinestosto-delta-risingsubscriptionSun, 30 Nov 2014 16:00:00 -0500319|21000445https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/26/perfect-worlds-q3-results-down/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/26/perfect-worlds-q3-results-down/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/26/perfect-worlds-q3-results-down/#comments

Perfect World's third quarter profits fell, according to a financial results document published yesterday by the free-to-play giant. CEO Robert Xiao blamed PW's American operations for the drop, though he said the firm remains "confident in the long-term prospects of our US subsidiary given its strong R&D and operational capabilities as well as [its] promising pipeline."

Perfect World declined to comment on the performance of Neverwinter's Q3 console launch. It did note that it is localizing the fantasy MMO for China, where the company has seen its concurrent user numbers drop from 778,000 to 623,000 inside of a year.

If you're among the legions of Trekkies, then you are almost certainly aware of Cryptic Studios'Star Trek Online. Since early 2010, players have boldly gone where no one has gone before in this MMO that blends spaceship battles, ground combat, and faithful tie-ins to the long-running franchise. Star Trek Online appears to be thriving following a free-to-play adaptation and two expansions, and some see it as the only official continuation of the TV series right now.

But what players encounter in Star Trek Online is not what it originally started out as. You may or may not know that STO began development under Perpetual Entertainment, which handled the game for several years until it went bankrupt and passed the license and art assets to Cryptic.

It's another tantalizing historical "what if?" scenario to think about what this game would look like if Perpetual had taken it to launch and beyond. But what did this version of Star Trek Online look like? Let's investigate.
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classicclassic-mmosclassicscrypticcryptic-studiosculturef2pfeaturedfree-to-playgame-archaelogistlegalmichael-okudammo industrynostalgiaopinionp2-entertainmentperfect-worldperfect-world-entertainmentperpetualperpetual-entertainmentpwesci-fisoesony-online-entertainmentstar trek onlinestar-trekstar-trek-mmostar-trek-onlinestar-wars-galaxiesstoswgthe game archaeologistthe-game-archaeologistverantverant-interactiveSat, 22 Nov 2014 12:00:00 -0500319|20992568https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/19/massively-interview-designing-neverwinters-tiamat/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/19/massively-interview-designing-neverwinters-tiamat/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/19/massively-interview-designing-neverwinters-tiamat/#comments

Massively: Neverwinter players are already facing off against a fearsome five-headed dragon in the game's newest module, Rise of Tiamat. To find out more about how the titular beast was created, we sat down with Senior Content Designer and Loremaster Randy Mosiondz. Randy, is this module the culmination of the game's story to date?

Randy Mosiondz: Yes, Rise of Tiamat marks the epic conclusion of the Tyranny of Dragons storyline! We introduced some notable figures featured in this plot in the Shadowmantle module. Then we had the rise of the Cult of the Dragon chronicled in the Tyranny of Dragons module with their attempts to build a hoard for Tiamat, as well as the fight with the dragon-worshipping barbarians on the island of Tuern. Finally, with Rise of Tiamat, we go to the Well of Dragons, an ancient dragon burial site where the Cult of the Dragon is attempting to lure Tiamat from the Nine Hells.
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action-mmocrypticcryptic-studiosdndf2pfantasyfree-to-playinterviewinterviewsmodule-5neverwinterpatchesperfect-worldperfect-world-entertainmentpreviewspwerandy-mosiondzrise-of-tiamatWed, 19 Nov 2014 18:30:00 -0500319|20996307https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/18/neverwinter-rise-of-tiamat-goes-live-today/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/18/neverwinter-rise-of-tiamat-goes-live-today/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/18/neverwinter-rise-of-tiamat-goes-live-today/#comments

Who's afraid of the big bad dragon goddess? Wait, scratch that, who isn't afraid? She is a dragon with five heads that can breathe fire, chlorine gas, lightning, acid, and frost. She is enormous. That is scary. Unless you're a player character in Neverwinter, which launches the Rise of Tiamat expansion today; then she's just another target down the inevitable road of dragon-slaying. Technically your goal is to stop her from being summoned altogether, but let's face it, we know how this sort of thing works out.

So what else awaits adventurers aside from stopping the Cult of the Dragon and saving the eponymous city of Neverwinter (and by extension the world)? Well, Scourge Warlocks can pick up the new Soulbinder paragon path, and players of all stripes can pick up new artifact equipment for four different slots (neck, belt, main-hand, off-hand). This is, of course, assuming going toe-to-clawed-toe with the queen of dragons herself wasn't motivation enough.

Maybe you haven't quite finished the storyline for Star Trek Online's second expansion, Delta Rising, but you can probably guess that it ends with the Delta Quadrant in better shape than when you arrived. You are the triumphant heroes! Except... nothing is ever really that easy, is it? Nothing ever ends perfectly. And sometimes there's just a little more going on than you think from the surface, which is exactly what's hinted in the bonus epilogue episode releasing today.

The epilogue, What's Left Behind, features the voice talent of Robert Picardo and Denise Crosby capping off the existing story of Delta Rising and resolving some last-minute unanswered questions. It also raises a few new ones along the way because why not? Just because you could handle one threat doesn't mean you're prepared for another this soon. The episode is beaming on to the live servers today, so set your course and engage promptly.

So let's get this straight. While exploring Star Trek Online's Delta Quadrant, the USS Voyager comes across a mysterious object. The ship's crew immediately brings it aboard and tries to figure out what in the world it's supposed to be, coming to a lot of conclusions about what it isn't while being unable to find many answers beyond "it's probably a communication device of some kind." It also doesn't quite match any of the technology seen from the obvious sources of technologically enhanced mystery objects like the Solanae Dyson Sphere.

And yet everyone thinks keeping this on a ship is a good idea? There are a lot of episodes arguing against that.

All joking aside, there's a fair bit of lore to be found in the latest official dispatch from Star Trek Online, hinting rather solidly toward potential new encounters for players in the future. What it all means remains to be seen, but you can take a look at the lore and puzzle over what Voyager found.

Nope, it's not April Fools' Day, but it's going to look like it next week in Neverwinter. Cryptic is reintroducing Respen's Marvelous Game, its 2014 April 1st event, from November 13th to November 17th. The minigame turns your character into a tabletop miniature that slides around the tabletop skirmish map as you collect special dice currency and other rewards. Massively's Justin Olivetti included the event in his roundup of the top 10 MMO pranks of all time.

Star Trek Online recently launched a new expansion with a level cap bump, and unfortunately some people decided to quickly exploit the mechanics to race up to the renewed level cap via exploits. Unfortunate, but not totally surprising. Cryptic Studios, needless to say, rolled back the gains made by those players. Unfortunately, as can happen, a few innocent players were caught in the crossfire, but what can you do about that?

Well, in this case you can re-examine players who were erroneously rolled back and restore their points. Producer Stephen D'Angelo made a post on the official forums stating that instead of trying to make another adjustment, all players will have the points that were removed restored to them. So it's back to how things were before, and if you lost out on points through no real fault of your own, you have them back. Or even if it was through direct fault of your own.

From now through November 20th, the Star Trek Online lifetime sub can be bought for $199. This marks the player as an eternal gold member, with the Talaxian race, a ship upgrade token for Delta Rising, a monthly ZEN allowance, and other veteran rewards.

As for the Talaxians, players who pick one as a captain will not only have the honor of looking like Voyager's resident space hedgehog but also get access to two unique traits: salvage specialist and loyalty.

Neverwinter has been building to an epic showdown with its "season of dragons" storyline, and now with the advent of the game's fifth free module, it looks as though the final battle is about to begin.

Rise of Tiamat will release on November 18th with an all-new series of quests and dungeons. Players will find out that the Cult of the Dragon is trying to bring back the titular five-headed goddess and destroy the town of Neverwinter. Naturally, the characters cannot let that happen.

We've got the quick story trailer for Rise of Tiamat after the break, so give it a watch and prepare your hearts and souls for this conflict.

The exploit took place on certain maps and allowed players to advance 17 times faster than normal. D'Angelo said that only around 250 players were engaging in these actions and that "intensive data analysis" was used by the team to determine who was abusing the exploit on purpose and who had accidentally triggered it.

"I'm certain that at least some of the players feel they were acting in the right," D'Angelo wrote, "that errors the dev team makes should be fair game. There are likely some others who feel that I drew the line in the wrong place, either too high or too low. It is challenging to walk the line between protecting the playe base that wants the game to be fair, and allowing players to be efficient and 'game the game.'"

Massively: Today we're joined by Neverwinter Senior Content Designer Randy Mosiondz to talk about the game's story. So Randy, how does the story of Neverwinter run parallel to the pen-and-paper campaign and how does it differ? In the cases of its divergeance, why did the team take those paths?

Randy Mosiondz: In Neverwinter we usually try to parallel a lot of the Forgotten Realms story development that Wizards of the Coast has been doing over the last few years. At launch, the majority of our adventure zones were based on stories were being told in the Realms, primarily focusing on Valindra, the Crown of Neverwinter, Gauntlgrym, and the aftermath of the Spellplague. One of our main sources of inspiration was the D&D 4th edition Neverwinter Campaign Guide, which had a number of great story seeds.

We did add a number of new zones that were not directly connected to that book but were still drawn from Realms lore. In a lot of these cases we simply wanted to make sure there was enough variety in storylines, environments, and monsters you encountered to ensure we covered all of the high points of the D&D adventuring experience. Whenever we do this, we consult with Wizards of the Coast on a weekly basis to ensure these storylines match up to their expectations of what fits in the Forgotten Realms.
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action-mmocrypticcryptic-studiosdndf2pfantasyfree-to-playinterviewinterviewsloreneverwinterperfect-worldperfect-world-entertainmentpwerandy-mosiondzstoryMon, 20 Oct 2014 13:00:00 -0400319|20974562